Orange County Digest

Anaheim : Stereo Equipment Stolen From Church

"Satanism lives" and other Satanic graffiti were scrawled on the walls of the Unitarian Church of Orange County, apparently by a burglar who stole "several hundred dollars" worth of stereo equipment Thursday night, church officials said.

"It looks as if they left their message and grabbed the stereo equipment and took off," the Rev. Maurice Ogden said Friday. "I have no reason not to believe that this is just one of those cases of infantile vandalism and theft that has found an . . . excuse for itself . . . in some kind of supernatural justification."

Ogden said there have been other minor incidents of vandalism at the church at 1120 W. Santa Ana St. and some vague threats against community groups that have used the church's facility.

However, Ogden said, "there is no reason to believe there is any connection" between the prior incidents and Thursday night's vandalism and theft.

Anaheim Police Sgt. Larry Kurtz confirmed that a police report had been taken on the burglary but said he knew of no similar incidents.

A church member passing by the building Friday morning noticed a broken window through which the burglar may have entered the building, said Ogden and church president Randy Carroll-Bradd. The burglar left a dirty tennis-shoe footprint on a vinyl chair inside the window, Carroll-Bradd said.

Satanic slogans, including a pentagram--a five-pointed star enclosed in a circle--were scrawled in spray paint on interior walls, Ogden said.

"It's one of life's irritations," he said. "I don't know exactly what to do except clean up the mess."